First Honda FCX leaves factory

The first Honda FCX Clarity hydrogen fuel cell vehicle has rolled off the production line in Japan. The zero-emissions Honda won’t be coming to Europe yet, as Honda is initially leasing a fleet of 200 vehicles to customers in the California and Japan.Customers will pay roughly £300 per month over three years for the privilege, but drivers will be conscious of the car’s 270-mile range as there are only 3 hydrogen filling stations in California and 12 in Japan.John Kingston, environment manager for Honda UK, said: “The arrival of the first hydrogen fuel cell car is particularly significant during this time of rapidly increasing oil prices. Honda is proud to offer an alternative energy solution that could reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and the effect of motoring on climate change."Under the FCX’s skin is a fuel cell stack that uses an electromechanical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen to convert chemical energy into electrical energy, which in turn powers the 134bhp motor. The only byproduct is water.

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It needs to get over to the UK as soon as possible, and the Government need to get some Hydrogen Fuel Stations up and running as soon as possible! Or Honda should get the home-fill-up-stations ready for use in the UK. This car would sell at the bucket loads providing they were to price it right!

I'm glad that alternative fuel vehicles are now starting to appear, but I really don't see that locally refuelled Hydrogen cars are the answer. These are basically electric cars with an on-board power station, whose fuel evaporates into the atmosphere if not used quickly.

Rather than build an expensive network of hydrogen filling stations, which will be stocked by thousands of hydrogen-carrying road tankers, why not build larger, more efficient energy converters in the form of Hydrogen-fuelled power stations, and distribute the power through an existing network, i.e. the national grid.

This would keep Hydrogen away from the general population and from terrorists, and avoid the issue which receives little attention - that of water (the exhaust) being spread across our roads. Not good in a cold climate!

The inefficiencies of distributing and storing the power on-board in batteries would surely be offset by the greater efficiency of a central energy converter. However, if we really do want to have a 'distributed power generation system', then why not have nuclear-powered cars?

In case you hadn't noticed, a fair proportion of what comes out the back of a petrol/diesel car is water vapour...you'll probably find that a typical petrol car produces more water exhaust than a hydrogen-electric car.